DEMOCRACY AND DEMOCRACIES, TO/
«
law must govern, and cannot be made to suit the temporary
will of the people. And as to the making of the laws them-
selves, there is less free room for demagogues to move in,
since the representative system (as well as written constitu-
tions) has put difficulties in their way, as we shall presently
see.
196.
There arc three moderating principles in democratic states
Moderating princt- aS ^1C/ ai"C Constituted 111 modem tlttlCS : aCOn-
ples in democracy. stitulion, a representative system, and some-
times a limitation of the suffrage. The first and the last of
these may be introduced into the framework of a city democ-
racy ; but the safeguards against change there are few, and
those arising from extent of territory and difference of local
interests arc wanting. The last of the three, or a limited suf-
frage, few city-states, without a strong oligarchy, could
long retain ; for the people, being the majority in number
and able to unite their forces, could gain political power
much more easily than when they are dispersed over a wide
country.
I. A constitution contains the most important principles
of government, and defines individual rights
A constitution. *» i • r 1- Ai • *
with the expressed view of guarding them against
change. They are generally guarded in such a way that,
unlike ordinary laws, the will of an existing majority is not
competent to alter them. It was a safeguard of a framework
of government that, with the other laws, it was attributed to
some mythic law-giver, or had the sanction of divine authority,
as of the Delphic oracle in Greece ; but when a change of so-
cial habits and a loss of faith in the religion of the country-
came on, this awe ceased. The feeling of power, when the
act follows the will at once, is uncontrollable, Athens was
by no means one of the worst democracies, yet the people
on one famous occasion, under an oligarchic influence, cried
out that " it was outrageous if the demus should not be allowed
to do what it pleased/' And the party that wished law